St. Petersburg Times

Gone are the days when weight-loss surgery was used only for the morbidly obese -- people who are at least 100 pounds over their ideal weight.

That's because even for less severely overweight people who can't keep the pounds off through conventional means, surgery can be the most effective way to banish certain serious health conditions.

Do you know someone who has been told that he or she has fibromyalgia? It seems as if almost everybody who walks into my office lately has received this diagnosis.

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain condition seen more often in women than in men. It's fairly common, affecting 5 percent to 15 percent of the population.

Still, I think that it is overdiagnosed, and that means too many patients aren't getting the medical help that could best help them with their pain, fatigue and other symptoms.

Imagine you have a leaky roof. The roofer comes over, puts down some buckets, hands you a hefty bill and leaves without fixing the roof.

You'd never tolerate that, right?

Yet something similar happens in medicine all the time, and patients rarely complain.

Excessive weight is the underlying repairable cause of most chronic illnesses treated today. But instead of tackling the weight problem (the leaky roof) patients often take medications (buckets) for the illnesses caused by their weight problem.

Golf course operators have heard all the excuses as to why fewer people are playing: It's too hot. It costs too much. Work takes up more and more time.

But one excuse is bound to make them cringe: It takes too long to play. Operators can't do much about the weather or work, but they can do some things to speed play.

"I was aware of eating disorders due to media coverage, but they're usually presented as female problems so I never made the connection with myself. Looking back, I can see that I had behaviors associated with an eating disorder from my late teens but I never considered I might have an eating disorder until my quality of life began to diminish. I was obsessed with food. I counted calories constantly. Anxiety defined my daily existence. I was paralyzed emotionally and socially. It was hard for me, but I finally realized that I had an eating disorder."

BRANDON, Fla. -- Debora Marshall wasn't sure what she was witnessing. She came home from work to find sheriff's cruisers blocking streets in her sleepy Florida subdivision. Deputies with guns drawn and bulletproof vests surrounded her house.

"They had it blocked off at both ends. I thought a murderer was on the loose," she said.

So did the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

Authorities thought her son had killed her.

"My son was home and clueless," Marshall said. "I was at work, and all my neighbors thought I was dead."

In what appears to be the first incident of its kind in Hillsborough County, someone falsely and anonymously reported a murder and hostage situation that easily could have drawn a special weapons and tactics team and deadly consequences.

People being treated for eating disorders often believe that they're more dysfunctional than they actually are. Invariably, I find myself showing patients that many of their behaviors are also experienced by people who don't have eating disorders.